[Ice]

I bought some Homebase own brand compost earlier this year.   It looked just like someone had shredded some cardboard boxes and stuffed it into bags.  Awful stuff, an absolute rip off.

Even the "name" products have disappointed this year.

[wighty]

As a retailer we have an account with Sinclairs (Arthur Bowyers) for 15 pallets spread over the year (each pallet is 60 bags).  The ones earlier this year were 'carp', full of big bits of wood and rubbish but the two pallets that came in last week were so much better, much finer and more what we are used to.  I think the summers that we have had over the last two years have had an influence on the 'consistency' and with the better weather this year we are getting back to what we normally get. I am only reporting on what I used at the weekend to repot my Geraniums for the Winter and my personal observations.

[MoreWhisky]

I generally have to buy a bag or 2 until i find the one i want. And its different every yr.

My advice is to watch this site next yr when we all start chatting about them,  tips about whats ok this yr free for all 

[chriscross1966]

I went with B+Q's this year, partly cos Which magazine said it was OK.... had generally good germination of commercial seed and decent germination for self-saved. Only failures were with quite old seed. I only really use it for seed-sowing cos here in Swindon we can buy from the recycling places for 28 quid a ton loose... and I have a van and a trailer.... a ton of compost is an enormous amount.... with three dumpy bags in my van and two in the trailer I managed to load 800Kg in an hour and I had to stop because it was getting hard to swing the shovel up to the height to get any more into the van,,,,,,if nothing else it taught me never to buy MPC for use in potting on and for the tomato beds etc.... I'll use the rather coarser loose stuff if I need some, and they do tyopsoil and soil/compost blend for the same price so you can mix it to your owns specs if you want....

chrisc

[Zippy]

B&Q Peat Free MP compost - has to be riddled to get the bigger bits out if using as sowing compost; otherwise it gives a good solid base for most plants and re-wets nicely. Root balls are good and solid when planting out.

A bit more expensive but very nice is B&Q Organic Peat free MP compost; finer and smells great - earthy.

I tried a bag of Fertile Fibre - a Coir compost - but it dried out much too quickly giving rise to sickly plants with weak root systems. Would not use again. The only thing it was good for was starting off smaller root trainers but these needed transplanting to peat free compost to keep them going.

[Jamie Butterworth]

I generally have to buy a bag or 2 until i find the one i want. And its different every yr.

So essentially, it is just luck at first, you can never tell each year what each one is going to be like, you would have thought some of the big branda would have some consistensy

[solway cropper]

What this shows is that we should all be making our own MPC if we have the space. I know you can't do that if you're gardening on a balcony in a flat but most of us have room for a dalek, open heap or leaf-mould frame.

Next year I'll only buy a small amount of compost for seed sowing because it's supposed to be sterile and weed free, something I can't guarantee with my own stuff.

[savbo]

B&Q Peat Free MP compost - has to be riddled to get the bigger bits out if using as sowing compost; otherwise it gives a good solid base for most plants and re-wets nicely. Root balls are good and solid when planting out.

A bit more expensive but very nice is B&Q Organic Peat free MP compost; finer and smells great - earthy.

I tried a bag of Fertile Fibre - a Coir compost - but it dried out much too quickly giving rise to sickly plants with weak root systems. Would not use again. The only thing it was good for was starting off smaller root trainers but these needed transplanting to peat free compost to keep them going.

I found half riddled B&Q and half reconstituted coir (from the bricks) gave quite good results